I’ve been saving my trash in a “plastic audit” since October of 2019. I live a generally plastic-free lifestyle but I’m not 100% plastic-free…yet. So, to see where the last 1% of my trash was coming from, I started keeping track of all of it. At the end of each month, I look to see where I can improve.

A few reminders of the rules. This is just my trash not my whole family’s (although they don’t generate too much more than this). My husband is not as stringent on plastic as I am, so he buys a weekly tub of yogurt and occasionally some bacon. But again, my husband and kids don’t generate too much more trash than me.

Finally, the city I live in provides compost and recycling along with trash pick-up. Now, given the state of recycling, I only recycle metal, glass, and paper. This generally includes a few cans of tuna and clams a month, a few glass jars of olives or mustard with metal lids, and junk mail. But even so, I try to reduce the amount of metal, glass, and paper we use.

So, now that we’ve covered the ground rules, let’s dive in! Here’s all my trash for the month of July!

Overall, I probably could have done a better job, given it was Plastic-Free July but to be honest, it was also my birthday so there were some extra plastics related to that. First, I spent my birthday in San Diego and the old bathing suits I’ve had forever weren’t cutting it. (I spend a lot of time surfing while in San Diego and it’s tough find a bathing suit that stays in place.) I order a bathing suit online, a few splash-proof bags from the Aloha Collection, and a travel coffee funnel:

I normally use an 8-cup Chemex coffee funnel at home but clearly, that’s too large to travel with so I bought a small travel one and used it on top of my travel coffee cup.

Also, for the first time in a LONG time, I had a drink at a bar and it totally slipped my mind to ask for no straw! Finally, since I was traveling, I opened up a new bottle of contact travel solution.

Anyways, let’s compare this to my trash from July 2020:

Since last year, I stopped buying milk and found alternatives for cheese and produce with tags. For cheese, my deli switched to paper, instead of butcher paper which is lined in plastic. So, I get big blocks of cheese at the deli wrapped in paper. For the produce, I get all my leafy greens at the farmer’s market to avoid the plastic tags.

Most of the seals from glass jars are unavoidable at the moment since vinegar, extracts, and fish sauce are liquids I frequently use.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I LOVE Zebra pens. I don’t write too often since I like to keep everything digital. But when I do, I only use Zebra metal pens.

They have ink refillables that you pop in:

Finally, I’ve been going through some health issues that I’ll cover in a future post. But one of the things I’ve started to do was take vitamins. I’ve found vitamins in a glass jar by MegaFood which can be purchased at Whole Foods.

For next month, I’m going to look into refillable options for the remaining liquids I use in my kitchen and I know I say this every month, but I’m really going to try to reduce my online orders. haha. Since it’s no longer my birthday, it should be a tad easier. 😛

What do you think? Are you interested in doing a trash audit? Maybe for a day or a week? Tell me if you do in the comments!

For related and random posts, check out:

• All My Trash for 2020
• Plastic-Free Meal Plan